Learning in the liminal space: a semiotic approach to threshold concepts

Abstract

(2014) 'Learning in the liminal space : a semiotic approach to threshold concepts.', Higher education., 67 (2). pp. 199-217. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10734-013-9705-x Publisher's copyright statement:The nal publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10734-013-9705-x. Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract:The Threshold Concepts approach to student learning and curriculum design now informs an empirical research base comprising over 170 disciplinary and professional contexts. It draws extensively on the notion of troublesomeness in a 'liminal' space of learning. The latter is a transformative state in the process of learning in which there is a reformulation of the learner's meaning frame and an accompanying shift in the learner's ontology or subjectivity. Within the extensive literature on threshold concepts, however, the notion of liminal space, has remained relatively ill-defined. This paper explores this spatial metaphor to help clarify the difficulties that some teachers observe in the classroom in regard to their students' understanding. It employs a novel and distinctive approach drawn from semiotic theory to to provide some explanatory insight into learning within the liminal space and render it more open to analysis. The paper develops its argument through four distinct phases. Firstly it explores the spatial metaphor of liminality to gain further purchase on the nature of this transformative space. The second section introduces semiotic theory and indicates how this will be used through a series of graphical and visual devices to render the liminal space more open to analysis. The third section then employs semiotic analysis to nine dimensions of pedagogical content knowledge to gain further insight into what may characterise student conceptual difficulty within the liminal state. The fourth and concluding section emphasises the role of context in conceptual discrimination before advocating a transactional curriculum inquiry approach to future research in this field. Response to Reviewers:We have made reference to and cited the Baillie et al work 'Heteropia: Alternative pathways to social justice'. We did not include additional material relating to the individual subjectivities and underlying epsistemologies of authors as, with three authors, we felt this would be cumbersome, would adversely affect the tone and coherence of the piece and would not substantially add to the argument. We have corrected and standardised referen...

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Turbocharging the Journey Into the Liminal Space and Beyond

“…A Liminal space meanwhile is the space through which the student must traverse in order to move from this old state to a new state. A Liminal space can thus be seen as a "space of Transformation" [19]. The successful exiting of the Liminal space to the new state, coincides with the acquisition and mastery of a threshold concept.…”

Reflections on teaching research ethics in education for international postgraduate students in the UK

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